Forget the naughties for a minute...Barbara, earlier you said you already had your ticket for Les Troyens. Did you like it? I did. Since Jon doesn't come around much any more, maybe I can get away with saying this: Five and a half hours of Berlioz goes a lot faster than five and a half hours of Wagner. (Sacrilege, I know.)

The corps de ballet got a big workout. I don't think I've ever seen that much dancing in an opera before. Unfortunately, the dancers were underrehearsed and they weren't always in sync. But the choreography itself was fantastic (done by Doug Varone), especially the patterns formed by intricate arm movements even when the dancers weren't quite together. I enjoyed it in spite of the misses.

Lorna already said she liked it, and so did I. There was a time when the Met Opera orchestra was one of the weakest around, but now it's ranked as one of the best. About the same thing happened with the Met chorus. Maybe now they'll get around to working on the dancers. I agree the choreography was outstanding, best I've ever seen in an opera.

I do like Susan Graham's voice, so rich and resonant; she was a wonderful Dido. The longest role in Les Troyens is Aeneas, the Met debut role for Bryan Hymel. He never faltered once that I could tell; I thought he was excellent. I'm glad I got to see this opera.

Only one regret. That marvelous Trojan horse -- I wish it had been onstage longer.

Only one regret. That marvelous Trojan horse -- I wish it had been onstage longer.

Yes! They used that horse in all their promotional material, but it was onstage only about a minute. A few minutes later there was a magnified projection of the horse on the backdrop, but that lasted even less time. The horse should have been there from the first mention of it.

I was at Les Troyens, the first HD I've been to in a while. It's an impressive experience, and one can see why it's a rarely undertaken one: it asks a lot of everybody onstage.

It is indeed gratifying to see how superb the chorus has become under Donald Palumbo's direction; it's quite right that he took a bow with them at the end.

At times during the Fall of Troy scenes I had a hankering for the now-discredited practice of doing the opera over two nights, because I found Deborah Voigt (who has been glorious on occasion in the past) unable to bring Cassandra to life at this time. Berlioz's vocal music depends so much on the singer shaping and sculpting it, and all she could do was sock it out in a basic way, audible but uninteresting. And the character dominates those first scenes.

But all the rest was a great pleasure. Susan Graham has the majesty and richness for Dido, and Bryan Hymel proved stunningly in command of Aeneas -- a rare circumstance with this preposterously demanding role. Bravo!

Nice to see the plaudits for Bryan Hymel on his Met debut at rather short notice. I've seen him four times - the Prince in Rusalka twice, first near Wexford (on a makeshift set in a big tent with uncomfortable seating while the Opera House was being rebuilt), later at Covent Garden. Also at CG, he was Aeneas in David McVicar's Troyens, and more recently in Meyerbeer's rather fusty Robert le diable (replacing Jonas Kaufmann). All pretty strenuous roles, but he just sailed through all of them. The nearest comparator that I can think of is Robert Dean Smith.

Somewhere recently someone stated that Hymel's surname is pronounced "Eemel" Was that how it sounded at the Met HD event?